2021 tables: Institutions - life sciences - academic

The 2021 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

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# Institution Share 2019 Share 2020 Count 2020 Change in Adjusted Share 2019-2020*
1 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 212.23 220.83 753 -4.4%
2 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 168.84 188.21 691 2.4%
3 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 126.16 126.93 499 -7.6%
4 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 80.54 94.40 377 7.7%
5 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 69.58 89.86 382 18.6%
6 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 87.95 89.12 295 -6.9%
7 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 74.92 87.46 378 7.2%
8 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 76.40 79.23 354 -4.7%
9 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 80.23 78.67 328 -9.9%
10 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 73.17 69.00 313 -13.4%
11 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 47.31 67.68 327 31.4%
12 University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland 51.79 55.08 194 -2.3%
13 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 41.09 53.11 175 18.8%
14 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 44.94 52.18 252 6.7%
15 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 50.67 49.39 153 -10.4%
16 King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK) 42.49 48.09 240 4.0%
17 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 32.23 46.91 247 33.7%
18 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 47.91 46.79 194 -10.3%
19 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 44.75 46.22 148 -5.1%
20 University of Tübingen (Uni Tübingen), Germany 36.41 42.60 214 7.5%
21 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 27.69 40.16 133 33.2%
22 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 30.55 38.14 219 14.7%
23 Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium 47.89 37.76 197 -27.6%
24 Goethe University Frankfurt (GU), Germany 28.03 37.13 148 21.7%
25 University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany 42.61 37.08 148 -20.0%
26 Leiden University, Netherlands 30.52 36.84 199 10.9%
27 University of Münster (WWU), Germany 17.54 36.50 122 91.1%
28 University of Groningen (RUG), Netherlands 34.44 36.29 170 -3.2%
29 University of Helsinki, Finland 34.01 36.13 204 -2.4%
30 Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin), Germany 33.71 36.02 341 -1.9%
31 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 33.37 35.86 179 -1.3%
32 University of Cologne (UoC), Germany 32.17 35.60 152 1.7%
33 Radboud University Nijmegen (RU), Netherlands 33.55 35.35 217 -3.2%
34 Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), United Kingdom (UK) 17.63 34.80 144 81.4%
35 Lund University (LU), Sweden 26.51 34.49 154 19.5%
36 Aarhus University (AU), Denmark 27.53 33.48 153 11.7%
37 University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK) 40.81 31.15 153 -29.9%
38 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 31.21 30.76 254 -9.5%
39 University of Oslo (UiO), Norway 34.80 30.75 140 -18.8%
40 University of Göttingen, Germany 29.58 30.43 154 -5.5%
41 University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK) 31.89 30.29 132 -12.7%
42 University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland 24.41 30.27 126 13.9%
43 VU Amsterdam, Netherlands 23.48 30.15 212 18.0%
44 Humboldt University of Berlin (HU Berlin), Germany 26.47 30.10 343 4.4%
45 University of Paris, France 28.59 29.37 339 -5.6%
46 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 37.72 29.12 164 -29.1%
47 Sorbonne University, France 33.28 28.21 348 -22.1%
48 The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK) 31.25 27.77 89 -18.3%
49 University of Birmingham (UB), United Kingdom (UK) 23.59 27.76 136 8.1%
50 Ghent University (UGent), Belgium 23.33 27.67 140 8.9%
51 Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), Austria 14.35 27.60 57 76.7%
52 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany 19.95 27.09 85 24.7%
53 Stockholm University, Sweden 26.34 26.21 188 -8.6%
54 University of Gothenburg (GU), Sweden 23.75 26.09 141 0.9%
55 University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany 27.76 25.84 145 -14.5%
56 Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Netherlands 22.77 24.36 152 -1.7%
57 Newcastle University, United Kingdom (UK) 30.48 23.83 108 -28.2%
58 Aix-Marseille University (AMU), France 23.00 22.98 156 -8.2%
59 University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK) 20.41 22.83 89 2.8%
60 Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden), Germany 18.36 22.55 156 12.8%
61 Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), Germany 16.19 21.85 103 24.0%
62 University of Vienna, Austria 21.53 21.56 129 -8.0%
63 University of Montpellier, France 22.20 21.18 222 -12.3%
64 University of Barcelona (UB), Spain 18.34 20.25 167 1.5%
65 University of Dundee, United Kingdom (UK) 20.17 20.22 87 -7.9%
66 Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Netherlands 19.90 19.02 113 -12.2%
67 Cardiff University, United Kingdom (UK) 19.55 18.72 104 -12.0%
68 University of Bordeaux, France 13.77 17.59 124 17.4%
69 Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark 16.34 17.54 85 -1.4%
70 Medical University of Vienna (MUW), Austria 20.03 17.11 131 -21.5%
71 University of Toulouse, France 17.94 16.93 129 -13.3%
72 The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), United Kingdom (UK) 9.98 16.69 86 53.7%
73 Philipps University of Marburg (Uni Marburg), Germany 14.46 16.47 85 4.7%
74 The University of Nottingham (UoN), United Kingdom (UK) 8.96 16.39 100 68.1%
75 University of Regensburg (UR), Germany 13.08 16.25 66 14.2%
76 University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK) 15.80 16.11 89 -6.3%
77 Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany 13.07 15.94 98 12.0%
78 University of Paris-Sud (UPSud), France 16.66 15.80 208 -12.8%
79 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 13.78 15.71 84 4.7%
80 University of Konstanz, Germany 11.15 15.68 52 29.2%
81 Umeå University (UMU), Sweden 10.75 15.56 98 32.9%
82 University of St Andrews, United Kingdom (UK) 10.66 15.28 60 31.6%
83 The University of Warwick (Warwick), United Kingdom (UK) 11.37 15.24 83 23.1%
84 Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium 9.93 14.66 60 35.6%
85 Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany 11.10 14.19 59 17.4%
86 University of Lyon, France 13.90 14.06 144 -7.1%
87 Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium 11.84 14.01 63 8.7%
88 Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Spain 11.38 13.93 130 12.5%
89 Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway 14.40 13.73 87 -12.4%
90 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 10.69 13.48 83 15.9%
91 University of Sussex, United Kingdom (UK) 11.76 12.95 41 1.1%
92 University of Kiel (CAU), Germany 13.21 12.65 92 -12.0%
93 University of Trento (UNITN), Italy 10.25 12.60 63 12.9%
94 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 11.84 12.34 88 -4.3%
95 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), United Kingdom (UK) 6.30 12.01 69 75.1%
96 The University of Dublin, Ireland 10.34 11.90 63 5.7%
97 Leipzig University, Germany 9.49 11.84 118 14.7%
98 Maastricht University (UM), Netherlands 8.51 11.77 84 27.0%
99 Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), Germany 6.95 11.69 111 54.4%
100 Ulm University, Germany 12.72 11.63 59 -16.0%

Footnote

Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Users please note:

  1. The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences only and outputs are non-normalized (that is, they don’t reflect the size of the country or institution, or its overall research output).
  2. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals, selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields.
  3. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
  4. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at natureindex.com.

The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the frozen annual tables.

*The change in adjusted Share accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in Nature Index journals. Share values have been adjusted to 2020 levels to calculate the percentage change. For more information on the adjustment, please see the Adjusted metric explainer.


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